I know, but Sprouts didn’t have a white pasta sauce.  Instead they had this.  I should have just walked over to Albertsons.  This little packet was awful.  I tried to compensate by adding a bunch more cheese, but it didn’t help.  Don’t buy this stuff its not what you think.  It is not creamy at all.  Its like water mashed potatoes, and has the same flavor.  You have been warned!

Now some may say that listening to a book is cheating and doesn’t count. I’m not one of those people. I only read the unabridged copies of audiobooks. But if you take out the books I listened to and only count those I read, then that’s 34 books, 5 of them on a portable device of some sort. I hope the ebook percent goes up in 2012, because I received a Kindle for Christmas and I am really looking forward to reading more on it. Its pretty cool!

So what you really want to know was what the good books were and what you should avoid. Well here it is. The best rating a book can receive is 5 stars, the worst 1 star. See the graph below for the break down.

I gave up on two books last year. They were:

A Little History of the World by Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. They received 2 stars and 1 star respectively.

I read 12 books that I thought were worthy of a 5 star rating last year. They were:

1. One Second After by William R. Forstchen

2. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

3. Bossypants by Tina Fey

4. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

5. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis

6. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

7. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

8. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium, #3) by Stieg Larsson

9. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

10. Star Wars, Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (The Original Radio Drama) by Edward Humes

11. ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse

12. The Story of Classical Music by Darren Henley

If you would like to see all the books I read last year you can see me goodreads page here:

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139817-jason

I’m still reading a ton of books. Mostly listening, but I do get some real books in there whenever I can. I’m at 78 for the year. My original goal was 100 and it looks like I won’t have a problem hitting that number by the end of the year. Some of my favorites since February are: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson (3rd in the trilogy), Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Bossypants by Tina Fey, and Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

We put our condo up for sale and it took a while, but it is now in escrow and Michelle and I are shopping for new homes in northern Orange County. I got an iPad 2, best purchase of the year so far.

Late in March, we all go sick. Wasn’t too bad, but turned out Samantha had an ear infection, so we had to get her some meds, but of course she is 110% now. Speaking of Samantha she is doing very well. She has been going to “Mommy and Me” classes all summer long with Gigi and is signed up for Pre-school in the Fall. She is learning so much. Last week she was commanding us around, “Daddy, play dollies with me! Mommy, get me my milk!” and I asked her, “Just who do you think the boss is around here?” And without so much as a moment of hesitation she said “Me!”.

Samantha is addicted to the Disney fairies and Barbie. She watches all the Barbie movies (yes, there are many of them) and Fairy movies (again, lots of movies) over and over again. And being the boss she demands that daddy sits next to her on the couch, while she watches the movies with a dolly in each hand. I am very thankful for the iPad!

Samantha and Gigi still go to the library a few times a week. Samantha enjoys story-time and there is a nice park near the library they like to go to as well.

We got to go to Disneyland in April. It is always a pleasure and we always have fun. Samantha’s favorites are King Arthur’s Carousel and Dumbo! This time we waited in line for about 2 hours to see Tangled! Samantha wanted to leave towards the end but we stuck it out and got to see her.

I enjoyed watching the Ducks in the playoffs in April…until they lost. Easter at my parent’s home was a great time, despite the rain during the Easter egg hunt.

In May we went to my new favorite fancy-dancy restaurant in Laguna Beach. It’s called Watermarc, and they have one killer martini! Speaking of great drinks, I’m still addicted to Starbucks but now I have a new partner in crime. Samantha loves the birthday cake pop they have at Starbucks and is continually asking for them. I don’t mind any excuse to go to Starbucks.

June was a great month and not just because that’s when my birthday is, although that was a great day too. I got to watch the Stanley cup games (Thanks Michelle) and my dad and grandmother from New Mexico came to visit. It was pretty cool to see my grandmother, it had been a very long time!

June was also the month that my brother-in-law William graduated from high school! We were so busy, we also had a great mini vacation in Santa Barbara in June. We stayed at our favorite place and got to hang out with my sister-in-law, Lisa. It was really a great vacation! Our vacation didn’t end in Santa Barbara though, we also too Samantha to Pretend City, it’s like a theme park for toddlers. It was pretty cool. We also hit the beach and the Aquarium of the Pacific. And last but certainly not least we went to Legoland down by my mom’s house.

In July, Michelle and I had our 8th wedding anniversary. Also in July was Comic-Con. It was hot and crowded. We (Duane and I)waited in line for 4 hours and finally got in to see the panels for Eureka (cancelled a month later), Warehouse 13 (great show) and True Blood (adults only!). It was a funny, but exhausting day! Before the month was out Samantha graduated to a toddler bed. She had no problem moving from the crib to the bed. She loves it, sleeps in it all night without problems and thinks to the Disney princess sheets that we got her are awesome! On July 30, we went to my father-in-laws company picnic. Free food and lots of fun. He and Lauren, my sister-in-law joined me for a quick game of disc golf at the really nice course they have at El Dorado Disc Golf Course in Long Beach.

August was Michelle’s birthday. We went to Yardhouse with Samantha. Samantha was so tired she fell asleep at the restaurant. If you have ever been to a Yardhouse, then you know it is so loud, you can hardly hear yourself think. It’s virtually impossible to carry on a conversation without the use of sign language and Samantha feel asleep and stayed asleep. She woke up after we left the Yardhouse and entered a Sees candy shop for a snack. Just like her mother! A real Sees lover.

I think that catches us up pretty well. It’s been a fun few months, and we are excited about what is to come in the next few.

This was a great movie. But that has already been said. After all, Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an 82%, which if you know Rotten Tomatoes is a very good score. It is a Sci-Fi movie, but at the same time there are elements of Thriller and Suspense flick in it. Nothing to scary, but I did jump a few times. Definitely not okay for little kids. Too scary, but your older teens will be okay. It marked as a Sci Fi flick on Rotten Tomatoes, but on IMDB it is marked as a Thriller too. It reminded me of E.T., The Goonies and Flight of the Navigator. Those type of movies in the early 80′s when the kids in movies ran towards adventure and anything scary instead away from it. The movie takes place in 1979, so that helps with the whole early 80′s feeling. But the kids are brave and cool. They are smart and funny. These kids are great actors and that sold the movie for me. This is a fun watch and I highly recommend it.

This year as part of my read 100 books initiative, I finally got the time to read Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. The book was nothing like what I have heard about Frankenstein before. For example, the monster as he is called throughout the book is not called Frankenstein. That is the name of the doctor that creates the monster. It was an interesting book, but not really fascinating. I think that has more to do with the year in which it was written and less to do with the quality of the writing.

Wanting to do a full circle on this subject I also watched the movie Frankenstein. The movie is very short, only 1 hour and 10 minutes. Even given the shortness of the movie it still seems long as the story drags on and you keep waiting for something to happen. For those who don’t know this movie has almost nothing to do with the book. The only similarities are there is a monster and he does kill someone. That is where the similarities end. I would recommend the book, but I can’t recommend the movie, it was just terrible, even if it is a classic.

So the oatmeal experiment comes to an end.  What are the results?  Well, I’m totally tired of oatmeal.  My final weigh-in results were X – 1.  I’m one pound lighter than I was on Sunday night.  The changes you see above in the chart could just be normal weight fluctuations.  Funny, I thought I would have really gained some kind of different knowledge through this experiment.

A friend of mine Tom, wants to do a wight loss challenge of some kind and when we get it going I will post the results here.

My last day…maybe.  Tom, from the comments, has suggested that we do some kind of weight loss challenge.  I’m up for it, so we will see what Tom has in mind.

Today is Earth day so I got my free coffee from Starbucks in my reusable travel mug.  Stay tuned for my weigh-in tonight.

Before I worked at Verizon Wireless, with the connivence of the cafe, I used to skip the breakfast meal altogether.  But now, every morning I get something.  I’m definitely taking the weekend off.  Its Easter for heck sake!  On Monday, I’ll decide what my next steps will be, but I’m not done yet.  One more day to go.

Today I switched it up.  I got orange juice instead of coffee.  This choice will increase my caloric intake by 185!  This may impact my weigh in tonight.  Only one more day left.

X – 2!

I can’t believe it!  I’ve lost two pounds since starting this experiment.  In only 3 days!  WOW!  I’ve hardly given up anything!  I had a bacon cheeseburger today for lunch.  Its just too bad I had to give up the options of my favorite meal of the day.  Well, tomorrow morning will be oatmeal again.